The Dandy Warhols

The Black Album/Come On Feel the Dandy Warhols (Beat the World)

The Story of the Weeping Camel
Cinematography by Luigi Falorni;
Opens Friday at the Cedar Lee Theatre
Theater

After releasing their monumental 1995 debut, Dandy's Rule OK?, the Dandy Warhols were quickly snapped up by Capitol, which just as quickly rejected the group's second album, claiming it didn't have any hits. In 1997, the group turned in The Dandy Warhols Come Down, which did provide alterna-hits in "Not if You Were the Last Junkie on Earth" and "Boys Better."

Nevertheless, the lost recordings, dubbed The Black Album, reached mythic proportions over the years. Now officially released via the Dandy Warhols' own imprint, this album was well worth the wait. While one can understand Capitol's hesitancy to release some of it -- a drugged-out nine-minute shoegazer rendition of Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" probably wouldn't shift many units -- Black Album renditions of such Come Down staples as "Boys Better," "Good Morning," and a seriously damaged "Minnesoter" are way more in-your-face than the later versions.

The bonus CD, Come On Feel the Dandy Warhols, is an equally engaging collection of B-sides (some, like the absolutely infectious "Retarded," should have been released on proper albums), outtakes, and good-to-amazing covers, including Blondie's "Call Me," Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax," Ted Nugent's "Free for All," AC/DC's "Hells Bells," and an acoustic rendition of "Edmund Fitzgerald."